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The vanitas still life genre, which takes
its name from a passage in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes—“vanity of
vanities, all is vanity”—used groupings of objects to offer a cautionary message about the foolishness of spending money and time on
worldly possessions and leisure pursuits.

Placed prominently in the center of the
composition, the skull is a memento mori,
a reminder of death. The hourglass, the guttering candle, and the...

The vanitas still life genre, which takes
its name from a passage in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes—“vanity of
vanities, all is vanity”—used groupings of objects to offer a cautionary message about the foolishness of spending money and time on
worldly possessions and leisure pursuits.

Placed prominently in the center of the
composition, the skull is a memento mori,
a reminder of death. The hourglass, the guttering candle, and the...

The vanitas still life genre, which takes
its name from a passage in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes—“vanity of
vanities, all is vanity”—used groupings of objects to offer a cautionary message about the foolishness of spending money and time on
worldly possessions and leisure pursuits.

Placed prominently in the center of the
composition, the skull is a memento mori,
a reminder of death. The hourglass, the guttering candle, and the soap bubbles
remind us that time on earth is fleeting, and exhort the viewer to lead a
righteous life. The musical instruments, the cards, and dice—and even the
painter’s palette—comment on earthly distractions that all pass away. The
African servant holds up a portrait miniature; its subject, most likely the
person who commissioned the painting, points to the skull to emphasize this
central message.

Finally, while this painting was intended as
a warning against wordly pleasures, it was itself a costly luxury item. This
paradox between message and reality speaks to the complex consumer culture of
the Dutch Golden Age—and also resonates with our own society.

Musical instrumentsThree musical instruments are present in the painting: a lute, at far right, with its pear-shaped body; a recorder, lying on the table; and a cittern, whose rounded back is visible at lower left behind the hourglass. All three were popular in domestic ensemble playing and as accompaniment to singing, their inclusion hinting at the social enjoyment of music.

In this vanitas painting, these instruments are also included because the temporary nature of music makes a good analogy with the brevity of human life. The artist purposely turns the stringed instruments away from us to evoke death’s inevitable stilling of the voice.

FlowersThe flowers above the skull primarily signify the
fragility of human life. The tulips also make reference to Dutch trade, first
imported from Turkey in the sixteenth century. Tulips would also have reminded
viewers of the Dutch craze for buying and selling tulip bulbs that caused a massive futures market crash
in 1637 and ruined many investors. Finally, by including fritillaria,
the checkered flowers above the tulips which often give off a pungent odor of
decay, Bailly may be invoking our sense of smell to remind us of our mortality.

Seashells
The seashell on the table at lower right is that of the olive snail, a marine
snail found throughout the Indo-Pacific. Its inclusion in the painting is
intended as a warning about the vanity of shell collecting, which had become
popular among wealthy Dutch citizens. As the Dutch East India Company opened
new trade bases in the East Indies, new varieties of shells made their way back
to Europe, feeding the desire for the acquisition of these rarities.

The African servant

The presence of the young African man
at right is at one level a reminder that the Dutch were heavily involved in the
African slave trade from the 1630s onward, transporting West Africans across
the Atlantic Ocean to work on sugar plantations in Brazil. His inclusion makes
clear that human beings were as commodified in the Dutch mercantile system as
exotic trade goods like seashells or tulip bulbs.

Paradoxically,
while slavery was practiced in Dutch territories around the world, it was not
allowed at home in the Netherlands. Appropriately, the gold chain around the
man’s neck and his fine green doublet mark him instead as a servant in a wealthy
household, and as one more trapping of worldly prosperity to be contemplated
with the rest.